Investors flocked Grindrod on Friday after the logistics giant announced it would rewarded shareholders with a special dividend thanks to a boost to earnings from recent asset sales.
The shares soared as much as 13.8% to R14.84 on the news, reaching the highest level in nine months and recording the best intraday performance in years. They closed at R14.46, up 10.9% on the day.
The company reported a R903m cash injection from the sale of noncore assets in the six months to end-June, resulting in a 23% jump in headline earnings to R592m, or 88.7c a share.
That saw it declare a special dividend of 32.3c a share in addition to an interim payout of 23c a share.
The group has weathered a storm of operational disruptions in the past year, with trade wars, sluggish commodity prices and policy uncertainty weighing on export volumes.
Added to this were post-election protests and civil unrest in Mozambique, which dealt a significant blow to operations at the Port of Maputo earlier this year.
Grindrod owns a 24.7% stake in the concession to operate the transit port, where operations were put on hold in late 2024 as the protests turned increasingly violent.
In June it said interim terminal volumes had slipped from 6.9-million tonnes to 6.7-million tonnes a year. The group also cited weak mining commodity prices, with trade tension and the “continuing slowdown on global growth” weighing on iron ore, lithium, graphite and coal markets.
In a drive to shore up its portfolio against the uncertain outlook, Grindrod consolidated its ownership of the Matola terminal in Mozambique. It also sold its 50% stake in marine fuel trading unit Cockett as disposing of property-backed loans and advances on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast to African Bank Ltd.
The resultant one-off profit of R903m, including R900m in cash from the Cockett sale, added much-needed liquidity to the company’s balance sheet. Despite revenue being 4% lower year on year, basic earnings more than doubled to R1.47bn.
“The first half of 2025 was marked by a strong rebound in the second quarter, particularly in the port and terminals segment, following a slow start to the year,” Grindrod said.
Update: August 24 2025
This story includes details of the special dividend and Friday’s closing share price.
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